This invention relates to video game devices and more particularly to a hand-held interactive game device in which the user interacts with the game via a camera built into the video game device. The camera includes circuitry processing acquired images to detect movement of the game device. The game device can be a special purpose game device or game player, or other portable device with game player and camera functions, such as a portable cellular telephone with a video camera.
Hand-held interactive game players typically use a joystick or buttons as a mode of interaction with a video game. For example, the user launches the video game and the player manipulates the buttons and/or joystick to move a character in the video game, drive a car, etc. In such a system, movement of the joystick or presses of a button are translated into information that is fed into the interactive game application, whereupon an entity in the game, such as a car or person, is moved in the application. Such movement is simulated substantially instantaneously on the screen display of the game device.
This invention contemplates a different mode of interaction with a game application, and in particular one based on a camera built into the game device and processing of sequences of images captured by the camera. For example, the player can tilt the game device or move it to the left to simulate steering a car around a corner to the left in an interactive car racing video game. Such movement of the game device is detected by processing of a sequence of images captured by the camera during the movement. The movement of the game device is translated to movement information that is fed to the game application, just as joystick movement or button presses are translated to movement information. Substantially simultaneously with the camera movement, the car or person in the video game moves in accordance with the video game device movement. As such, the present invention presents a more user friendly and intuitive manner of interacting with interactive video games.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,766,036 to Pryor describes camera based man-machine interfaces. The '036 patent disclosed several possible ways of game interaction using a camera. These methods include using a camera to sense a player or players in a game, to sense objects held or manipulated by a player, such as a ball, to sense physical tokens used in a game (e.g., MONOPOLY™ tokens), to sense game accessories such as checkerboards and croquet wickets, and to compare positions of object with respect to other objects or players. However, the '036 patent does not teach or suggest interaction with video games played on a hand-held game device in the manner described herein and thus does not overcome the deficiencies in the prior art.